Mattia Traverso's soon to be IGF award-winning student project, One and One Story, is set to hit iPad and iPhone within the next four or so weeks. Traverso gave a short demo earlier this morning, and we couldn't be happier with his progress on the project and the implementation of its touch control scheme...

Our Australian friends from Halfbrick are large and in charge at GDC this week, showing anyone willing to listen to their endearing accents the upcoming Jetpack Joyride [Free]. First off, we absolutely loved the game in our review, but since then it's gone totally free and there's absolutely no reason to not download it...

My last meeting of day on Monday, here at GDC 2012, turned out to be a real treat. Alex Houdent of GlobZ, a studio formed in 2000 that develops primarily Flash-based games, let me spend some time with his upcoming iPhone arcade puzzler Twin Spin...

Before I get started here, let me offer two disclaimers: First off, the guys from NimbleBit asked me to make it very clear that this game is a work in progress and absolutely everything is subject to change. Traditionally, NimbleBit does extensive beta testing and implements tons of user feedback, Pocket Planes is nowhere near that stage left. Secondly, this is a very difficult game to describe, as I'm really not sure what to compare it to or what genre to classify it in. It definitely has elements of time management, but seems substantially more strategic than your typical time management game. Pocket Planes is definitely a much more "gamery" game, which even has NimbleBit a little worried with how the game will do as free to play games typically require a very large mainstream casual player base to be successful...

Earlier this afternoon, Spaces of Play gave us a first-hand look at how Spirits [$2.99 / HD], it's first and only game, might look on iPad 3's rumored 2048 x 1536 resolution. Like a lot of studios, Spaces is being proactive about the new hardware, and it's hoping to get a double resolution update out within a few weeks of the devices presumed launch a little later this month...

Music games that use your own songs and then procedurally generate content based on the tones, beats, and melody aren't new. We see a few promising ones every year, but that's kind of the thing: they helplessly remain promising. In large part, this is because the procedural part of these titles, in motion, can feel cobbled together. You can almost see these games' logic piecing together the experience...

We met with Pixel Hero Games here at GDC who were showing off an extremely early playable build of their new action adventure title Spiral. Built using the Unreal Engine, the game is looking pretty nice even in its early state. I've always felt that most Unreal titles look a bit "samey", kind of dark and gritty, and the Pixel Hero team made a conscious decision to try and make Spiral look a bit different from the rest. It has a more cartoon/anime edge to it, which not only makes it stand out but also ensures the game can run on 3rd generation devices and up...

First this this morning we met with Emeric Thoa from The Game Bakers, famously known for releasing Squids [$1.99]. We thought the game had promise in our review but weird balance issues kept us from giving it two thumbs up. The good news is, those issues have been smoothed out via updates, and should be totally eliminated in the upcoming sequel...

GDC startsâ€¦ Tomorrow! Most of the TouchArcade crew is already causing trouble in San Francisco, while a few of us (myself included) are still airborne and working via the wonders of in-flight WiFi. Anyway, just as a heads-up this week should be pretty crazy with a constant stream of posts as we meet with the 80 different game developers we have scheduled meetings with...

I can't really believe what I'm about to post, but here I am. We're over two weeks out from GDC in San Francisco and we're completely booked up. More accurately, we were completely booked up on Tuesday, and I've been trying as hard as I can to squeeze in a few extra meetings since then. However, I can say beyond a doubt we are at absolute maximum capacity right now...

As of today, GDC is only three weeks away. 2012 will be the fourth year that TouchArcade will be covering the event, and I'd argue that aside from maybe Apple's WWDC, GDC is the most important event to attend as an iOS developer. (Or, heck, any game developer.) The conference sessions are worth the cost of the trip alone, but the people you'll meet and the contacts you'll make seem to border on priceless per some of the "GDC success stories" I've heard...

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